User blog:SnowGem/Community Reminder - (4/30/15)
Hello again editors! Lately I've been getting the sense that some of you may not realize you don't need special rights to do certain things and I feel like this may be keeping some of you from becoming better editors. While it's true that some things should be left up to users with special rights(like handling reports and making community discussions), a lot of things don't need to be. Though these are not all of the things, here are some things that every user can(and should!) do on the wiki. Leave friendly notes about certain policies - No, you still should not leave a user a note about vandalism or anything of that such, but for some of our "guideline" policies, you certainly can! For example, if you see a user is uploading a lot of mis-named images, you might want to direct them to our image policies(in a friendly way of course) and spread your wiki knowledge. If you're worried about whether or not you should leave a note for something in particular, all you have to do is ask an admin if that'd be okay. Additionally you can ask if they manner you're writing the note in is okay. Discuss edits - Now this may or may not relate to the whole "needing special rights" thing, but I felt it was important to mention. Many users, especially new users, don't understand why the edit they've made isn't allowed and sometimes they also don't see or know how to use the page history feature. In cases like this, you shouldn't just keep undoing the edit, you should contact the user to let them know why the edit shouldn't be made and perhaps even work with them to learn what is better to add. Bring up ideas and suggestions - Every idea you have may not necessarily be a good thing for the wiki, but it's still a good idea to bring your ideas up. Even "bad" ideas are important sometimes as they can spark good ones when other people see it. That said, you should still try to fully think out your ideas before bringing them up because although discussion normally helps an idea get better, if an idea isn't well thought out at first it may not be taken the right way. Wiki maintenance - You don't have to be a user with special rights to take on the responsibility of wiki maintenance. You can check edits, check discussions, and everything else without special rights. I know because you can't always fix things yourself you may think you can't participate in such things, but that doesn't mean anything! If you find something that you can't fix yourself, all you have to do is report it to someone who can. (Extra note: Many of these are also good ways to grow the community and help more editors become better editors.) Further notes: Now this doesn't necessarily relate, but I thought it should be mentioned. If you're looking to become a better editor then there are two things you must know. #''Google is your friend!'' - There is a lot you can learn about general editing and wikia by google searching stuff. You can also use google to explore and look on other wikis for inspiration and ideas which can be applied to your work here. #''Weird questions are good!'' - It's okay to ask very specific and/or "weird" questions about editing or wiki-related things. This is often the best way to become an expert on such subjects and learn how to make good judgement yourself. So with that all said, happy editing everyone! Category:Blog posts Category:Staff Blog Posts Category:Wiki Reminders